Small Marketing Moves Can Make a Big Difference

A Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American

Small B2B Marketing Moves Can Make a Big Difference

Business owners can increase sales during these rough economic times by being flexible and doing things they wouldn't ordinarily do, i.e. customization, special orders and letting other companies know that you'll do whatever it takes to win their business. (A prospect can't read your mind, you know.)

Here are three other marketing tips for increasing B2B sales:

1. Family or locally-owned is good. When times are hard, people tend to become more community oriented. Many companies go out of their way to patronize family or locally-owned businesses, so if that's what you are, promote it.
2. Appearances matter. When times are hard and your down in the dumps, the last place you want to frequent is a shop with a broken sign, a dingy exterior, or dust all over everything. The same goes for websites that look like crap or with copy that seems to have been written by the owner's spouse. Clean up your mess and look professional.
3. Nobody has time or patience for incompetence. When a consumer actually walks into your office or picks up the phone and calls with a question, you do not want some clueless ditz with excuses like, "Oh, I'm not sure; I just started here last week and everything's so new to me ..." This isn't the time to cut corners where the rubber meets the road, i.e. where your business meets potential customers.

Marvel at These Pajamas

Marvel Comics has taken Jessica Rabbit's "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." quote and applied it to humans.

Using a comic book solution, Marvel, via Spencer's, is drawing sexy female bodies on their pajamas so that everyone can have the out-of-proportion sex appeal of comic book heroines. Nice optical illusion.

Air Swimmers

You're all set to get on the elevator when the door opens up and out swims a fish!

I sooooooo want one of these. I even went to http://www.airswimmers.com/ but their server was so busy the site had crashed ... so I can't tell you how much they cost. You'll have to visit the site yourself.

There Were a Lot of Ways to Lose a Man in the 50s

The following ads from the 50s are debasing, chauvinistic and pretty darn funny when you think about how they would be received today. Apparently maintaining a relationship in the 50s was totally the responsibility of the woman ... and there were hygiene minefields everywhere.

Because the woman was "the very air he breathes ..." she had to be careful not to have B.O. Veto Deodorant to the rescue.

Apparently only women had bad breath in the 50s. According to the ad: "You may have good looks, nice clothes, a wonderful personality, but they'll get you nowhere if you're guilty of halitosis." They didn't mention that Listerine was originally developed as a scalp treatment.

In the 50s, the lady in slacks was not as appealing as the lady in Hanes. Okay, here's a newsflash ... I'm a chauvinistic Mannequin American because I still buy the premise of this ad. (Send all hate mail to chip.martin@bmpr.com) But still ... the guy's with one woman and is looking at another woman ... that never happens in real life.

Sheboygan ... Surfing Capital of .... Sheboygan

Lake Michigan ... "It's not a lake. It's an inland ocean! Surfers call it the ‘Malibu of the Midwest' ... because of its importance in freshwater surfing."

I once lived in Sheboygan. So naturally after reading the paragraph above, which is on the city's website, I collapsed with laughter. After getting up off the floor, I read on: "With low pressure systems producing high winds and periodic storms, a great surf can kick-up in minutes! Several times a year Lake Michigan produces an open water swell of 24 feet or better." Okay that's seems true. And smart people generally stay away from the lake during those times. I read on ... and it got funny again!

Here's what it says about "Winter Surfing": "Water temperatures of 33 degrees and sub-zero wind chills with moving ice flows and icebergs create a winter adventure only seasoned knowledgeable veteran surfers will enjoy." First of all, I don't know what could possibly be enjoyable about dodging ice floors and freezing your appendages off...  but I do know that as an observer from land I would totally enjoy watching idiots trying to surf Lake Michigan in the winter.

For more information on "the Malibu of the Midwest", click here.

Vent Haven Museum

Every year Dale and I make a trek to Vent Haven Museum in Ft. Mitchell, KY, just outside of Cincinnati, OH. Dale is on the Board of Advisors for the Museum, and my predecessor, Chip Martin #1, resides there (he looks bored).

When you drive from the Cincinnati airport (which is actually in KY) to Cincinnati, you go right past the Museum. So if you're ever in the neighborhood, make plans to drop in.

For more information about Vent Haven, click here.